[mpratas]

I have an old Computer that will not boot up! It starts in DOS mode with error message "boot failure". I tried restoring hardrive to factory settings, ie. Wiping hardrive clean but I can't get PC to read CD/ROM or the A: drive.
How can I get the PC to boot up?!!!
My PC manufacturer went out of business... You're my last hope! HELP!!!!!

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Do you have a windows installation disk? Go into your bios (usually hit Del immediately after you turn the power on) and go to Boot and make sure your Cdrom is first on the list. Don't mess with anything else in there as you could really mess stuff up. Exit and save the changes. Make sure your windows cdrom is in the drive and start the installation. You may need to press a key to boot from cd if prompted to do so. Give us some more details on what's going on after you try this. Good luck

-=jonnyrotten=-

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Do you have a windows installation disk? Go into your bios (usually hit Del immediately after you turn the power on) and go to Boot and make sure your Cdrom is first on the list. Don't mess with anything else in there as you could really mess stuff up. Exit and save the changes. Make sure your windows cdrom is in the drive and start the installation. You may need to press a key to boot from cd if prompted to do so. Give us some more details on what's going on after you try this. Good luck

-=jonnyrotten=-

[mpratas]

Thanks! I'll try that when I get home! Yesterday, when I still had access to Windows, I tried to restore hardrive and my CD Drive would not read the restore CD or the floppy.
Is there any other way to restore without CDROM from DOS?

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Which version of windows are you trying to install?

-=jonnyrotten=-

[mpratas]

Windows 98SE !

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Do you have the Win 98 Boot disk? Use this to boot with, choose to boot to command prompt with Cdrom support and run the Windows setup program from a dos prompt.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[mpratas]

OK... You do mean the restore disk for windows, right?
Walk me through what the DOS prompts need to be!
The other problem I'm having is that when I start the PC the "A:\>" prompt comes up and it doesn't take any of the commands that I've tried to get into the C: drive ....
What could be going on?

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

A windows 98se boot disk is a 3.5 inch floppy that you place in the drive and boot with. It will bring up a menu with some options. You want to choose to boot to command prompt with CDrom support. When you get there you will be at an a:\ prompt. Next type the letter of your cdrom. for example: d:\ and hit enter. You can then run the setup.exe file to install windows. I think that is the file name for 98. If it is not there, take a note of the exe's and let me see the names. If you do not have a 98se boot disk then you can download one from here:

http://www.short-med...wnload.php?d=65

Once downloaded, extract the .exe file from the .zip file and place a floppy in the drive. Next double click the .exe file you just extracted and it will create a 98se boot disk. Reboot with the disk in the drive and follow previous instructions.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[mpratas]

Ok. I downloaded W98SE Boot Disk and I can't find it... Where did it go?

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Depends on where you have your downloaded files going to. Also depends on which browser you are using. For IE I would look in my documents somewhere maybe a "Downloads" folder or something. Also you could click "Start", "Search" and search for the filename. I forgot the name of it, I think it was something like boot98se.exe or something like that. It usually ends up on the desktop though when you download.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[mpratas]

I think it worked! I extracted right into A: drive and saved on floppy!!!
Thank you very much!!!!

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Lemme know how it turns out. Good luck.

-=jonnyrotten=-